Happy New Year 2015!!

Holla!! If you've been following me on Instagram, you'd know that I've just returned from a 3 weeks holiday in Malaysia with one tooth less, a slightly swollen jaw and fortunately for me, 3kg's lighter (yay!!).

Oh, don't get me wrong! I sure did indulge in all the local food during my stay. The Boyfriend and I also made a short trip to Penang to visit our friends and to enjoy all the good food.

Upon our return to KL, I had to put up with a lot of "Wah, you've gained a lot of weight!" remarks, from my parents, relatives and even my helper, which agitated me a lot.

But I've somehow managed to lose all that extra kilos that I've piled on following my wisdom tooth extraction surgery.

The surgery went really well, and I cannot reiterate enough how important it is to go to a good dentist.

If you're from Malaysia, and live close to Klang, I highly recommend Dr. Ngor from Emmanuel Dental Surgery Klang. He was so patient with all the concerns I had, and most importantly very gentle too.

I felt absolutely no pain at all during the local anaesthetic procedure, and throughout the surgery or even after that.

Unfortunately for me though, I was allergic to the painkiller that I was prescribed with. This resulted in me throwing up all my food and drinks for a whole 1.5 days.

I felt so sick and weak, I could barely even get out of bed. Except of course when I needed to throw up. All the spewing sadly injured the surgery wound, and at some point, the wound started to bleed again.

Obviously I couldn't take anymore painkillers, so I had to put up with the discomfort and relied slightly on Panadol. I also iced my cheek/jaw area externally to help soothe the pain.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I came down with a fever and cold the following morning. Thankfully I was home, in the care and support of my parents, who took such great care of me.

I did eventually get better and I'm all good now, except my mouth won't open as big as before seeing as the wound has yet to fully heal.

But I'll take all that pain I had to endure as a blessing in disguise though, as I am grateful for the weight loss. :P

I'm trying to maintain the weight loss and am doing my best to lose even more. So during the week since my return, I've been going to the gym, and have actually started eating clean. 

For breakfast and dinner, I usually have either overnight eats with chia seeds and fruits, or green smoothie/juice.

For days when I'm a little hungrier, I'd have an omelette with spinach, or a grilled chicken Maryland (without skin) or some stir fried vegetables. Sometimes I allow myself to indulge a little and I'll have eomukguk (Korean fish cake soup).

I've also started packing my lunchbox to work. I'm doing it "bento style" with a main, a side dish of vegetables and a side of protein.

Here's my effort over the past two weeks:

Lunchbox Week 1: Grilled Miso Chicken Breast as my main, stir fried vegetables with sesame seeds, nori tamagoyaki (seaweed egg roll). And yes, I ate the same thing for 4 consecutive lunches.

Lunchbox Week 2: Japanese hambagu (hamburger steak) as my main, edamame, cherry tomatoes, nori tamagoyaki (seaweed egg roll). This week though I mixed it up a little and sometimes have sugar free carrot kinpira or kimchi as my bento filler.

I try really hard to go carb and sugar free during the weekdays. I also ensure that I hit the gym at least 3-4 times, with a minimum of 40 mins to an hour time spent.

During the weekends, I allow myself a little leniency to enjoy some rice or noodles. This usually involves my favourite Korean dishes such as bibimbap or tteokbokki.

I also allow myself the chance to rest up during the weekends with sleep-in's and the chance to just roll around in bed.

In the evening though, The Boyfriend and I will take our newly bought bikes for a spin around his neighbourhood and sometimes even, if the weather permits, we'll do the trails together. 

I've been back for 10 days now and so far, I've lost a further 1.5kg!! :D

No doubt, I'm really proud of myself but at the same time I'm also pretty sure it's the early stages and I'm only losing all the water retention weight.

I know it'll get harder from here on but I'm not going to give up. I've never been this motivated before and I hope to keep this determination going until I hit my goal of losing a further 10kgs.

Truth be told, I've never liked what I see in the mirror, and I used to hate my body. But I've learnt to slowly give my body the love and attention it deserves.

This has helped not only with this whole process, but also gave me a boost of confidence. Instead of just sitting around and whining about how fat I've become, I'm actually doing something about it.

There are days when I return from work feeling really tired, and of course I'd just want to take a shower and jump into bed.

But these are the days when I have to work really hard to convince myself to drag my sorry arse to the gym.

Tell yourself surely you can spend just 10-15 minutes with a bit of exercise - that's how I do it, because once you're pumped you're going to keep going. 

For me, the hardest bit is actually getting there, but as soon as I'm there, there's no problem with pushing myself hard. 

I've even chopped off my hair because as silly as this sounds, I find it troublesome spending all that time washing and drying my hair.

It really puts me off from working out. So yes, I'm now donning a short asymmetrical bob which I absolutely love! 

I think I look a lot fresher, what do you think? 

Those who know me well, knows that I've been battling with my weight for years. Losing weight has become a staple item on my new year's resolution list.

But this year, I'm doing it a little differently. I've got it down as:

Love my body! Get fit and healthy!

Once you're fit and healthy, you'll eventually lose the fats. At least that's what I'd like to believe.

To all of you out there on the same journey to fitness as I am, good luck! Let's keep pushing hard to achieve our goals.

As the Koreans would say, "화이팅! Fighting!"